I was asked to make cupcakes for a networking event at work and I was allowed free rein on the flavors. For once, it didn't take me too long to decide. I love the cranberry orange pairing in almost anything but I have never baked with it before. And I have been meaning to try the chocolate dipped cupcakes for years but have never gotten around to it.

This is a orange cupcake with chopped cranberries in the batter. The buttercream has orange zest, orange extract and pureed cranberries (well as close as cranberries seem to get to pureed anyway). Since the cranberries still had some size to them, they kept getting stuck in the piping tip. The sugared cranberries on top are so pretty (and yummy!).

This is a chocolate cupcake topped with a swirl of vanilla Italian meringue buttercream dipped in chocolate. The cake is not my usual chocolate cake recipe and was very light and airy. The vanilla buttercream was my normal recipe but I used vanilla bean paste instead of the beans and the texture and flavor both seemed improved. This cupcake was delicious, although I hear from those who don't have as much of a sweet tooth as I do that it was a bit rich.